Monday, October 31, 2011

Communiqué from the Holy Synod of Antioch's Fall Session

This translation is in no way official. The official Arabic version can be found here.

At the invitation and under the guidance of His Beatitude Patriarch
Ignatius IV, the Antiochian Orthodox Synod held its regular session in the
patriarchal residence at the Monastery of Our Lady of Balamand from the 25th
to the 27th of October. Present at the meeting were metropolitans:
Spiridon (Khoury) of Zahleh and Baalbek, Georges (Khodr) of Jbeil, Batroun, and
their dependencies, Youhanna (Mansour) of Lattakia, Elias (Audi) of Beirut,
Iliya (Saliba) of Hamah, Elias (Kfoury) of Tyre, Sidon, and Marjayoun, Antonius
(Chadraoui) of Mexico, Damaskinos (Mansour) of Sao Paulo and Brazil, Saba
(Esber) of Bosra, Jebel al-Arab, and Hawran, Georges (Abu Zakhem) of Homs,
Boulos (Yazigi) of Aleppo and Alexandretta, Silouan (Mousa) of Argentina,
Youhanna (Yazigi) of Europe, Basil (Mansour) of Akkar, Ephrem (Kyriakos) of
Tripoli and al-Koura, Archbishop Niphon (Saikali) patriarchal representative to
the Patriarchate of Moscow, Bishop Ghattas (Hazim) abbot of the Patriarchal
Monastery of Our Lady of Balamand and dean of the St. John of Damascus
Theological Institute, and Economos Georges Dimas, the Synod’s secretary.

The current session of the Holy Synod was held in delicate
circumstances, which the countries of the Patriarchate of Antioch and the Arab
Middle East are experiencing, especially Syria and Lebanon, where the Orthodox
are the majority of Christians.

The meeting began with a word of welcome from His Beatitude,
in which he emphasized the importance of the unity of the Antiochian Orthodox
Church in Lebanon, Syria, the Middle East, and the diaspora and the priority of
working to provide satisfactory responses to her children who, along with their
partners in citizenship, face many problems and challenges, as His Beatitude laid
out in the intensive meetings which he held in Lebanon regarding the
organization of the Orthodox community so that it can take its due place in
centers of political and administrative decision-making.

Starting from the basis of a single, faith-based approach to
the effective Christian presence and the genuine witness of Christians, the Synod
is concerned to emphasize the role of the Church in her capacity as a
conscience for all the faithful and so it continuously calls to mind what God
wills for the good of humanity. The Church cannot stand with her hands tied
regarding the oppression and discrimination that peoples and groups are facing.

Starting from the basis of the Orthodox Church having been
present in these countries since the spread of the Christian gospel and on the
basis of the proactive role that the Orthodox have taken across the ages in the
revival of their country as a nation and a civilization, the fathers call on
their children to participate actively in forging effective solutions for
exiting the crisis and embarking on the path of flourishing and their nations’
advancement.

The fathers of the Holy Synod examined the phenomenon of
political changes which are sweeping the region, asking God to inspire those responsible
for the fate of the countries of the region to take the right decisions to
lessen the citizens’ pains, to ease their life’s circumstances, and to ensure a
flourishing future for their children. In this regard, the Synod emphasized:

1. Work in faith and hope for the sake of bringing peace,
social justice, and the building of a civil state on the basis of equality of
rights and responsibilities for all under a single law to which all children of
the nation submit without exception.

2. That the children of the Orthodox community hold on to
their homes through Church- and social-solidarity between the flocks of the
nation and the emigration.

The Synod likewise studied internal issues, including:

1. The internal
statutes of the See of Antioch: They emphasized that these statutes must take
inspiration from the unity of the people, which is enclosed in secrets around its
pastors, so that they can offer service pleasing to God. They called attention
to the importance of applying these statutes, the basic purpose of which is to
ensure opportunities for the faithful’s partnership together, each according to
the gifts he has been given. Through this it is possible for all to participate
in planning the work of the Church, being involved in it, and bearing responsibilities.

2. The pastoral situation and the necessity of reforming it:
The technical developments which the world is witnessing make it necessary for
the Church to adopt new positions with regard to pastoral questions that
transcend habitual forms and adopt advanced means for helping the faithful to ensure
an honorable life and to employ their abilities in general life. In this
context, the establishment of productive enterprises is one of the ways to root
children of the community. It is likewise possible for educational and social
institutions, those existing and those yet to be founded, to ensure, by
securing opportunities for work, spaces in which the Church can bear witness to
the particularity of her service to the world and her love for it.

3. The state of church media: Media must play a central and
important role in solidifying interaction and cooperation between the Church
and the world. In order for media to be interactive, it must leave space open
for communication in order to determine the reality of the situation and the
ideas and proposals that today’s society is producing concerning everyone’s
future. Likewise, church media has an interest in building bridges of
communication within the single nation and between the societies of the different
nations that make up the Antiochian sphere. Likewise, the fathers of the Synod
emphasized the universal role of church media and the importance of the Church’s
taking initiative in responding to the needs of the flock and of society.

In closing, the Synod expressed its hope that the leaders
and peoples of the Arab Middle East will work together to ensure stability,
freedom, and a promising future for this region as well as its hope that the
Orthodox community will play an effective role in this.

Published by the secretariat of the Holy Synod of Antioch

Monastery of Our Lady of Balamand, October 27, 2011

My own comment: For the sake of effective church media and the strengthening of bonds between the Antiochian Church in the Middle East and abroad, it would be nice if official English versions of statements like this werepublished. It would also be nice if a representative of the Archdiocese of North America went to meetings of the Synod....

5 comments:

The past few meetings of the Holy Synod have been in Balamand. I gather that it's better facilities than in Damascus, but it's also definitely easier for people coming in from international flights (Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, and Mexico City....), and may be easier for everyone involved-- His Beatitude lately spends a lot of time there and there are slightly more metropolitanates in Lebanon than in Syria. Plus, Lebanese sectarian politics are a bit more malleable through overt actions of the Synod than Syrian politics are...